During assembly of many products, particularly those that employ plastic components, it is necessary to secure adjacent parts to each other. As an example, during assembly of outdoor power equipment such as a riding lawn mower, there may be a number of body panels that may need to be secured to each other, the frame and/or other components.
Joining of components may typically be performed using hardware (e.g., metal clasps, snaps or buckles that join adjacent plastic pieces) or plastic snaps. Although hardware can often provide secure joints and may be relatively easy to employ, the use of hardware increases the number of components since the hardware is actually separate from the plastic components being joined and must be separately produced and then may also take more effort in assembly. Plastic snaps, which may employ a conventional cantilever snap design, may require varying amounts of force to install since it is typical for the amount of install force of a plastic snap to increase with the stiffness of the material and the desired amount of engagement. As such, where a great deal of holding power is desired, a plastic snap that requires a lot of force and is difficult to install must typically be used. Moreover, in many cases, the snap may require a corresponding hole or attachment feature that is large enough for the widest portion of the snap to fit through. Thus, the snap head can fit back through the hole and the two components may come apart.
Furthermore, some snap designs require that the snap, hole, and components be manufactured with very small tolerances in order for the snap to hold the components together tightly. Sometimes deviations from these small tolerances can cause the snap to loosely fit in the hole (resulting in a loose fitting between the two components) or may prevent the snap from locking in the hole at all (preventing the joining of the two components at that snap location). Given some of the issues described above, it may be desirable to provide a snap feature that is capable of addressing at least some of these situations.